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Cortisol the main adrenal hormone is a good indicator or adrenal function, when your adrenal glands are exhausted and can't produce the required hormone levels usualy you suffer from adrenal fatigue that affects other glands say pituitary, thyroid and so on.
I checked twice wife's levels and where fine but LDN boosts some glands to produce the required hormones so may have affected adrenal gland too, although her TSH levels are high (T3-T4 normal probably due to LDN effect).
Wiki gives some good info about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenal_insufficiency

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i'm having a look into the adrenal thing, but first one more thing on zinc depletion in corticosteroid therapy

Serum zinc levels have been measured in twenty-four asthmatic patients, of whom sixteen were on long term corticosteroid therapy. They were carefully screened to exclude any concomitant disease. The non-steroid-treated asthmatics had normal serum zinc levels which ranged from 89 to 138 μg/ml. The corticosteroid-treated patients had a mean serum zinc level of 64 ± 9 μg/100 ml; this was significantly lower than normal (P = < 0·001).

it's a typo where they say 89-138 μg/ml they have to mean the same units as where they say 64 ± 9 μg/100 ml, which means we are talking 1μg/dL, so the non-steroid asthmatics are in the range 13.6 to 21.1 µmol/L and the steroid treated patients averaged 9.8 µmol/L. at my lab the normal range is defined as 11.5-18.5.

I am waiting Jimmy from you to mention zinc-adrenal gland connection but you don't and surprise me!
Zinc affects remarkably adrenal function and is the most helpfull mineral for them (iodine, selenium also).

Abstract The implications of essential trace elements in endocrinological processes, mainly thyroid function, growth, gonadal function, adrenal hormones, prolactin, glucose homeostasis, calcium-phosphorus metabolism, and thymulin activity, are reviewed. Most concerned elements in this field include iodine, zinc, selenium, copper, chromium, manganese and vanadium. The minerals are powerful modulators of several physiological functions that can be considerably perturbed in deficiency states. The resulting biochemical and clinical modifications can be prevented and/or corrected by adequate supplementation. Sometimes, however, they act like pharmacological agents when their beneficial effects are not the result of a correction of a nutritional deficiency state. Their potentialities as therapeutic agents are perfectly described in many cases, but some indications deserve further investigations.

dim, it's overproduction of cortisol that wears out the adrenal glands right?

Biol Trace Elem Res. 1990 Jan;24(1):83-9.Zinc acutely and temporarily inhibits adrenal cortisol secretion in humans. A preliminary report.Brandão-Neto J, de Mendonça BB, Shuhama T, Marchini JS, Pimenta WP, Tornero MT.Hypo- and hyperzincemia has been reported to cause alterations in the adrenal secretion. To determine the acute effect of zinc on cortisol levels, we studied 27 normal individuals of both sexes aged 20-27 y after a 12-h fast. The tests were initiated at 7:00 AM when an antecubital vein was punctured and a device for infusion was installed and maintained with physiological saline. Zinc was administered orally at 8:00 AM. Subjects were divided into an experimental group of 13 individuals who received doses of 25, 37.5, and 50 mg of zinc and a control group of 14 individual who received 20 mL of physiological saline. Serial blood samples were collected over a period of 240 min after basal samples (-30 and 0 min). We detected an acute inhibitory effect of zinc on cortisol secretion during 240 min of the study period in the experimental group.

Interesting about the increased pigmentation. I was just noticing that on my face...no chow chow tongue though.
The doc I spole to did not really have an answer to the blood work issue, as I am still taking oral steroids, and they're indistinguishable from naturally occuring..
I know what adrenal insufficiency feels like, not fun, the postural hypotentsion has literally put me down a couple of times
Anyways, this guy suggested I see an endocrinologist...another 'team member'?
There's not alot of guidance out there with regard to the steroid weaning..I took what I could gleen from explorations years back. I'm gonna talk to another doc at work tomorrow.
Thanks everyone for your input, if we weren't our own advocates and teachers we'd be up the creek.

I am waiting Jimmy from you to mention zinc-adrenal gland connection but you don't and surprise me!Zinc affects remarkably adrenal function and is the most helpfull mineral for them (iodine, selenium also).

msmything wrote:Interesting about the increased pigmentation. I was just noticing that on my face...no chow chow tongue though....Thanks everyone for your input, if we weren't our own advocates and teachers we'd be up the creek.

Wife has also some pigmentation in her face and after her diagnosis when she started LDN, supplementation, and nutritional changes it decreased remarkably!!!
Note we measured her cortisol levels recently so she could have had adrenal problems in the beginning.
We corrected many issues with supplements say fatigue, increased liver enzymes, increased homocystein/decreased B12, vitamin/mineral defficiencies etc hope we can balance her TSH levels that are quite high last month, who knows why!

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